


The Other Side of Paradise

by Nhitori



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Human, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 16:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13193787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: When Homura recreates the world, there's a little pocket of it for another Homura.  A Homura who's forgotten everything about magical girls and is living out a normal life, oblivious within her own labyrinth.  But forgetting magical girls can't completely erase the feeling Homura has that she's known Madoka Kaname, and all of her other new friends, for much longer than it seems.I settle for a ghost I never knewSuperparadise I held on toBut I settle for a ghost





	The Other Side of Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is kind of weird but if you're not sold yet Madoka's drunk in the first chapter and that's something I know everyone wants to see. For real though, I hope you can bear with the strange setting and enjoy!

Homura Akemi decided to stay.  
Homura Akemi also decided to hunt down the truth at any cost.

These were both the same and different Homura Akemis.

There were four sides which made up a Homura, Homura decided about herself. There was the side which wanted to protect the sacrifice that Madoka made. There was the side which wanted to protect Madoka. There was the side who wanted to live a happy life with the people she loved. There was the side which could never accept a falsehood without determining its root. There came a time, finally, when Homura became a witch. And within that labyrinth, the sides could not come to a fitting compromise any longer.

So, just as one Homura would eventually split the Law of Cycles apart, the other Homura split herself apart. Tearing her own essence asunder into halves, because she’d come to understand something. A wish could do anything, and a curse was more powerful than a wish. Her wish created over a hundred timelines. In some, the world went on with walpurgisnacht, and all of Mitakihara’s magical girls with it, dead. In others, the inexplicably massive witch of Madoka’s own curse, Kriemhild Gretchen, destroyed the entire universe. And in one, Madoka herself destroyed it with her witch, rewriting it into a world where becoming a magical girl was still a death sentence, but one without suffering, without any curses but the ones the wraiths carried.

The world would always have curses, no matter what form they took. Humans made curses. Magical girls made curses. Even in Homura’s own world, curses were created by the real people there, taking the form of nightmares to be fought by the magica quintet.

If Homura’s wish could create so many timelines, her curse could create two more.

One where she took Sayaka’s advice. One where she didn’t end it for being a labyrinth, where she let it go and accepted this world, this world made to be an impossible replica of Mitakihara City. She would accept the joy presented to her, but the only way to become that Homura was to forget about witches altogether. That was a job for the other Homura. The Homura who would create a brand new universe in a brand new timeline.

That Homura had dominion over a few things. Time, and the idea of Evil; Curses included, of course. That Homura had the power to give the other Homura the closest thing she could get to a happy ending; Leaving her locked inside a labyrinth, inside a curse, with a tiny sliver of the real Madoka to fill in the blanks of a fake version. There would be no curses there, and no magical girls. A normal life, as normal as anything could get in a false Mitakihara.

Both Homuras liked this plan.

\----

Homura Akemi had always been a smart girl, and that was about what she had going for her. Smarts, and stealth, actually. She didn’t count the latter as a virtue, though, because what good person would be good at sneaking around? She blamed her lack of presence, but it still rubbed her the wrong way, somehow, to be so good at sneaking when she would never have a practical use for such a thing that wasn’t considered criminal.

Since she was young, Homura had, simply put, heart troubles. Somewhere around middle school it had finally dipped into the realm of ‘minor’, going from something that required bed rest and frequent hospitalization, to a “small heart murmur” and a few other technical terms she didn’t care to understand, which basically boiled down to “you don’t have to live at the hospital anymore, but you can’t really do much of anything fun either”.

No strenuous activity, hard exercise, light exercise, eating especially unhealthy foods, or even speaking too much in one day. Those were things Homura tended to avoid anyway, being bookish and shy since even before white walls became the norm, but being told she could return to ‘normalcy’ in the same breath as so many restrictions was still rather disappointing. Nonetheless, at least she’d be able to go back to school. She’d fallen way behind during her long hospitalization period just before the heart problems reached a state of under control.

All she could hope was that she’d be able to catch up soon. She was a quick learner, but it all depended on somebody at the school being a willing tutor to her. As it turned out upon her return, however, it wasn’t really going back to school at all. Rather, she went back to the school building, only to be swept up by a private tutor to learn alone in a room. Just till she caught up, they told her, just till she caught up.

She remembered sitting across from the teacher in chairs much too nice for a school, at a table too nice for a school, as if they were having tea together. White floor, white ceiling, four white walls. Somehow, Homura got the feeling she was being isolated from something. An idea flashed along with that feeling. This was just setup, she was being isolated until she could meet the people she was always meant to meet. It didn’t make sense, and she didn’t understand it, but it gave her comfort for a someday, and she went along like a lazy river. She could tell when she caught up, and when she exceeded her peers too. That was okay.

High school was more of the same, it all blended together into a mess of nothing. After school, she worked, but none of her coworkers thought much about her. She did part-time filing and data entry for a large office, nothing very interesting, and didn’t get to know anybody. It was only when her boss saw her filling out college applications on break that she even remembered a thing anyone said to her.

“Go to college, and land a job doing basically this plus a few more responsibilities, for way more money. Or, just keep doing the good work you do, Akemi-san, and we’ll hire you for that same job right out of high school.”

So there was that stability. Homura Akemi found herself as one of the few people in this world for whom a simple work ethic was enough to get her on her feet, and she was glad for it. The job wasn’t interesting, and didn’t require much thought, but with it she could afford an apartment, and food, and to care for a small black gecko named Lily that she kept as a pet after discovering she had hitchhiked in on a package delivery from another climate, and couldn’t survive outdoors.

Lily was a nice reptile, and Homura grew very fond of her. She wondered if she’d turn into a reptile sort of person, sometimes. A snake might be a nice pet to have; She’d heard they could be very friendly, and she’d be lying if she didn’t say she thought they were cute. A gecko was pet enough for her for the time being, though. Having something to care for kept her from letting her own well-being slip too much. She couldn’t just have a heart attack and leave her pet to die, after all.

Generally, Homura’s life was uninteresting, until one night.

The biggest change in her job, after graduation, wasn’t the workload or the salary. Well, those did change, but not in a way that stood out. Homura did the same things as ever, quietly working through and getting everything done right, while getting a comfortable living wage. The real change was that becoming an adult left her subject to office relations, at least on some level. Nobody made a huge attempt to befriend her, but when the bosses said it was a night for the department to go out drinking together, it would be career suicide to say no.

So it was that Homura regularly ended up in her current situation. At a bar, in her work clothes, surrounded by people putting back beers and cocktails, having a rowdy good time, while she shrunk into a seat at the counter and nursed a simple water. Sometimes soda, if she felt ambitious. Tonight, something had compelled her to order a Shirley Temple. Gingerale and Grenadine, with a maraschino cherry that she found herself stirring the ice cubes around with. Another recommendation with her heart condition. No caffeine, no alcohol, nothing.

Then, she very nearly spilled that Shirley Temple when something crashed into her right side. She yelped in surprise, but managed to steady the glass with her left hand before it fell to the counter. She righted it, then turned with a glare to see who was the cause, expecting it to be one of her coworkers. Instead, there was a girl there who Homura didn’t recognize, but certainly would have if she’d ever met her before. She was dressed in a pink that matched her hair, which was tied in girlish pigtails despite her seeming to be the same age as Homura.

The girl turned, then gave a sheepish laugh “Sorry! I’m a really wobbly drunk, and my friend Sayaka-chan pushed me because she wanted me to talk to you…”

“...What about?” Homura asked, surprise taking over for any gripes she’d had moments ago.

“Well,” The girl grabbed the counter to steady herself and shrugged, “We were just talking about how you looked like you weren’t enjoying yourself. Designated driver?”

“No,” Homura answered honestly, “I don’t drive. I got dragged along here by my coworkers, but I can’t have alcohol because of a minor medical condition. So, forgive me if I don’t look like I’m having a ball.”

“My name’s Madoka,” The girl introduced herself, getting into the seat beside her, “Madoka Kaname. But you can call me Madoka anyway! I’m here with my friends Sayaka-chan and Hitomi-chan. It’s a girls night. But, I wanna bail on them to talk to you instead. I bet you could use it! If coming here is being dragged, does that mean you don’t have any friends at work?”

“I’m Homura Akemi. I guess you’re right, but it’s never bothered me much. I don’t need friends. They disappoint me,” Homura paused, unsure of where that sentiment came from. As far as she could remember, she didn’t have any friends, her whole life, right? She tucked a bit of hair behind the earpieces of her glasses then spoke again, “That’s not to say it wouldn’t be nice, maybe, to know even one of my coworkers’ names.”

 

“I can’t help you with the coworkers, but I can repeat my name a few times so you can be sure to remember it! Madoka Kaname, Madoka Kaname, Madoka Kaname!” Madoka’s laughter got louder on each repetition.

God, she was so drunk.

But, somehow, Homura found that a little bit endearing. She let a smirk turn up the corner of her mouth and lifted the cherry from her drink, “Okay, Madoka Kaname. As much as I hate to be an enabler, what are you drinking?”

“Cosmos,” Madoka answered without hesitation, “No ice, sugar rim. Lots of sugar.”

“Bartender!” Homura called out, “Another shirley temple, and a dry Cosmo that’ll make your sugar supply go bankrupt before too long,” Despite her joke and volume, Homura’s tone hardly changed.

Madoka got her drink, then made eye contact with Homura as she picked it up and took one gulp, rotated the glass, took another; She’d managed to perfect a way of drinking that ensured she wouldn’t lack sugar in a single slurp. Homura was a little impressed. Madoka giggled as she set the emptied glass back on, then grinned at Homura, “You like my trick?”

“It’s definitely interesting,” Homura noted with a slight chuckle, “Though, with how quickly you downed that, I can see how you’re this drunk.”

“I have a pretty hard job, so I like to be able to let loose sometimes. Hitomi and Sayaka will make sure that I get home safe,” Madoka said with a wave of her hand, “I like cosmos because they taste really good, _and_ get me drunk fast! My mom likes scotch on the rocks, and I could never figure out how she stomachs it.”

“I have never tasted alcohol, so I can’t weigh in on that,” Homura said, “What’s your job?”

“I’m a vet tech. It’s an internship actually, the last step I need to get certified as an actual vet, with on-the-job practice and training,” Madoka explained, “I get days off, but the days I do work are really long hours, and it can be rough when there are animals we can’t save… But, I don’t want to change careers! Just need some nights like this to take the edge off!”

“I see,” Homura said, then thought for a moment about how to continue the conversation. Somehow, she wanted to keep talking to Madoka, “I have a pet. A black gecko named Lily. She hitchhiked into the country on a shipping box, and she’d die outside, so I kept her.”

“That’s so nice!” Madoka exclaimed, sounding choked up, “Homura, that’s super nice of you… I want to meet Lily! Can I meet Lily?”

“I guess, if you want to,” Homura said, then pulled the napkin out from under her own drink and produced a pen from her pocket, scribbling her number down on it, twice to be sure Madoka couldn’t misread a number, then handed it over, “Here, you can call me sometime and we can set it up, if you still want to meet my lizard when you’re sober.”

“But I wanna meet Lily now!” Madoka complained, though she took the napkin.

“You said your friends would make sure you got home safely. I’m pretty sure that includes not letting you go home to see a stranger’s lizard,” Homura said.

“But you’re not a stranger, Homura. I want to go see a friend’s lizard,” Madoka said, reaching out to touch Homura’s shoulder, “Come onnnn~”

“Even if I agreed, your friends wouldn’t, Kaname,” Homura laughed, just a little bit, “And I do think they should be getting you home soon, you know.”

“You’re probably right, but I wanna keep talking to you…” Madoka whined, then looked down at the napkin in her hand, “If I call you, you’ll answer, right?”

“Of course. I can even answer the phone at work,” Homura said, “My job doesn’t involve talking to anybody, so as long as I get all of my assignments done on time, I can answer my phone or listen to music while working.”

“That’s awesome!” Madoka exclaimed.

“Hey, Madoka,” Another girl walked up, and Homura recognized her as the one who’d pushed Madoka into her. That short, blue hair was quite distinct, “Hitomi’s calling a taxi, it’s getting kind of late.”

“Look, Sayaka!” Madoka held the napkin out towards her, “I got a pretty girl’s number!”

Sayaka flushed, then looked to Homura, concerned, “I’m sorry about her! She’s super drunk, you know? I’ll just get her out of your hair…”

“What are you apologizing for? You had good judgment, sending her over to talk to me,” Homura said, “She made my night a lot nicer. Oh, but I gave her my number because she wants to meet my pet.”

“Oh, this isn’t a fake number?” Sayaka glanced at the napkin and noticed that Homura even wrote it twice for clarity’s sake. So she really did want Madoka to call her again, “I just thought Madoka started hitting on a straight girl again.”

Madoka pouted and got down from her seat, then pointed at Sayaka, “You look at her and tell me that she’s straight, Sayaka!”

“And, now she _is_ being weird,” Sayaka rolled her eyes, then put an arm over Madoka’s shoulders and started to pull her away, “Sorry again! Thanks for dealing with her for a few minutes, for us.”

“So that’s why you pushed her at me?” Homura asked, with a bit of a teasing smirk, then waved her hand at them, “Well, go catch your taxi. I’ll see you around, or I won’t. That’s up to Kaname.”

“Call me Madokaaa,” Madoka called back at Homura as Sayaka dragged her away to the doors of the bar.

Homura looked back to her shirley temple, her heart just a bit lighter than it had been before. And there was some spark of light, she felt, a little spot of sunshine that fell against the ice cubes. Madoka Kaname…

Were they destined to meet?


End file.
